Many of our customers throughout Europe are looking at refreshing their TETRA radios. They are looking at what the latest generation of radio offers end-users in terms of performance, longevity and modern features. But how do you make the right choice?

Gert Jan Wolf recently interviewed my colleague Stuart Longley about the MTP6650 TETRA radio: where it fits into our range of TETRA radios, and why it is seen as the ‘flagship’.

Here’s a couple of things Stuart said that give a taste of the interview:

‘If you want a fully featured device with class 3 RF performance, built in Bluetooth, built-in GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou - we’ve got all of the features and functionality in this, the MTP6650….. our flagship TETRA product…’

‘That’s why people buy two-way radios - they get the longevity. And if you’re buying a hybrid device I’m not sure you’ll necessarily see that. There’s pros and cons for each approach but we’re very much pursuing a collaborative vision at the moment.’

Check out the complete interview on YouTube:

I hope you enjoyed watching the interview. You can find out more about the MTP6650 radio at www.motorolasolutions.com/mtp6650.

                  

Mike is EMEA Solutions Marketing Manager at Motorola Solutions

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn
 

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotsolsEMEA on Twitter

If you weren’t able to get to this week’s PMRExpo or didn’t manage to see everything, we’ve pulled together a short round-up of videos from the exhibition for you:

Advancing the Lifeline
Sean Fitzgerald gives an overview of the wide range of devices, solutions and services on show at this year's PMRExpo including Avigilon video surveillance and intelligence-based analysis, the widest possible range of radios and accessories from unlicensed through DMR Tier 3 to TETRA, command centre and control room solutions, services that help you protect your network and device investment, and of course our new ST7500 compact TETRA radio:

ST7500 Compact TETRA Radio Key Features
Stuart Longley gets hands-on with the ST7500 and shows why he believes this device is going to be popular with Public Safety officers who 'want to concentrate on the task at hand' and why it is 'a device that takes them through to the future in the next generation of TETRA':

Avigilon Top 4 Features Demo
Robert Koehler gives us a hands-on demo of the top four features of the Avigilon video surveillance and analytics system: Avigilon Unusual Motion Detection, Avigilon Appearance Search, Avigilon Self Learning Video Analysis, and Avigilon High Resolution Video Cameras:

PMRExpo 2018 Highlights
A lightning quick tour of the best of the PMRExpo exhibition:

You can access all these videos and more on our PMRExpo 2018 YouTube Playlist

I hope you enjoyed this round-up.

Paul Jeffs - Editor - Think Public Safety.

Paul Jeffs is Public Safety Editorial Lead for Europe and Africa at Motorola Solutions.

Paul is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #PMRExpo

A Mission-Critical-Focused Preview of PMRExpo 2018 - Kölnmesse, Köln, Germany, 27-29 November, stand D12

Every day, governments, businesses and individuals rely on effortless and reliable communications. They call it their lifeline. From the extreme moments to the day-to-day, communication plays an increasingly critical role in protecting and connecting the world.

From mission-critical services and command centre software through to secure and reliable land mobile radio solutions, our technology is helping to advance your communications lifeline so businesses run smoothly and cities stay safe.

Come and experience this at PMRExpo 2018 in Köln. We will be exhibiting and taking part in the conference too. We’ll have the widest range of mission-critical solutions to show you. We invite you to join us at the exhibition on stand D12 where you can meet with our industry experts and get hands-on with the latest solutions.

We will be showing how you can unlock the potential of public safety in a digital age. We will be featuring purpose built devices such as the new ST7500 Compact TETRA radio, the new LEX 11 Mission Critical LTE device, the TPG2200 TETRA Pager; as well as complete radio network and command centre solutions, WAVE Push-To-Talk, Avigilon Video Surveillance and more. Check out our Mission Critical at PMRExpo event guide for more detail on what we will be showing for our Police, Fire and Rescue, Emergency Medical and other Public Safety users.

I am looking forward to participating in these sessions in the conference too:

• Tuesday 27 November, 11.00 - The future of Security-Critical Communication
• Wednesday 28 November, 15.30 - Secure Communications and Virtualisation

Check out our dedicated PMRExpo microsite too for news, views, previews and videos from the show - pmrexpo.motorolasolutions.com

I look forward to seeing you in Köln.

Axel Kukuk is Director Key Account Management, Head of Sales DACH at Motorola Solutions

Axel is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #PMRExpo.

Mission Critical Technologies Africa 2018 in Cape Town, 13-15 November 2018

I am excited to be exhibiting and speaking at this year’s Mission Critical Technologies Africa.

We will be showing how we can use our technology to solve communications challenges faced by police, fire and rescue, ambulance and other public safety agencies throughout Africa.

What are those challenges?

• Challenge 1 - Harnessing the complementary benefits of digital radio and mobile broadband technologies.  Many public safety service providers are planning for an extended period of co-existence for digital radio systems and mobile broadband networks.  This is understandable given that LTE mobile broadband networks promise access to cutting-edge, transformative applications that will enhance frontline personnel safety, improve situational awareness and boost productivity. TETRA land mobile radio systems, however, remain the best choice for supporting mission-critical voice services. How are you planning to maximise the benefits of TETRA coexistence with LTE?
• Challenge 2 - Managing diverse data from an increasing number of sources. With the increasing adoption of wearables, and the growing number of information sources, we are fast approaching a tipping point. This is where the risk of not knowing what we know increases. How do you isolate that critical piece of information that could have changed the outcome of an incident?
• Challenge 3 - Managing risk and keeping up with the pace of technology change. With the fast pace of technology advancement, do you have the skills and expertise required to maximise system performance and mitigate risk readily available in-house?
• Challenge 4 - Ensuring staff can communicate and collaborate in real-time. Creating reliable communications systems presents multiple challenges. How do you design networks to ensure that the technology used matches user requirements?

Visit us on stand A84 and learn from our experts about our range of solutions that can help you address these challenges:

The new ST7500 compact TETRA radio, Ultra Portable LTE Infrastructure, our LEX L11 Mission-Critical LTE Device, Si500 Body Worn Camera, Avigilon Appearance Search™ and Unusual Motion Detection, Control Room Systems coupled with our Command Centre Software,  Managed and Support Services to maximise your system’s availability and equipment uptime, high performance networks - MOTOTRBO™ Capacity Max and DIMETRA Express, WAVE broadband push-to-talk and a range of purpose-built TETRA, MOTOTRBO, ASTRO 25, and LTE devices. Wow!

Read our dedicated event guide to find out more.

I am also excited to be speaking in the conference on a very topical subject:

'National mission critical networks – leveraging digital technologies alongside broadband' in 'Connecting Africa' on Thursday 15 November 2018 from 12:50 to 13:10.

Visitor passes for Mission Critical Technologies Africa are free. You can register here.

Mission Critical Technologies Africa is also co-located with AfricaCom so you could easily combine visits to both. Visitor passes for both events are free.

You can also keep up-to-date with news and events on our Safer Cities, Secure Businesses Africa microsite at www.motorolasolutions.com/saferafrica

I look forward to seeing you in Cape Town.

Tunde Williams is Head of Marketing for Europe, Middle-East and Africa

Tunde is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #MCTA2018

My earliest memory of a ‘walkie-talkie’ is of a toy one I had as a child, and using it to communicate whilst out playing with my brother. It was great to just push the button and be able to talk.

With the availability of analogue and new digital radios, the situation is much the same. It still offered immediate connectivity through the ‘Push To Talk’ button. This immediate, fuss-free connectivity became essential for mission critical users such as Police, Fire or Ambulance who depend on them to help save lives.

Move into the early 2000s and cellphone users were asking to be able to connect ‘like radio users do’. This drove the development of new (infant) technology for providing a ‘PTT-like’ ability on 2G/2.5G cellphones but it was not reliable or robust enough for mission-critical applications.

Since then, cellular networks have rapidly advanced to 4G/LTE that supports bandwidth-intensive mobile data applications. PTT over broadband was developed to meet the needs of commercial users. PTT over mobile broadband has now been evolved to support mission-critical users too. Key to this evolution has been the development of international (3GPP) mission-critical standards:

Where does Motorola Solutions fit in? We continue to contribute to 3GPP standards related to mission-critical communications and lead the industry in standards implementation and compliance. Today’s mission-critical PTT users benefit from sub-second call set-up, high voice quality, numerous advanced features, as well as multimedia applications integrated on the same device.

What does this mean for Public Safety radio users? We recognise that when it comes to push-to-talk communications, one size, or in this case, one technology does not fit all. The right PTT communication platform should fit within your existing workflows, not the other way around. Our breadth of PTT solutions include PMR solutions (analogue and digital) such as ASTRO P25, TETRA and DMR standards as well as WAVE, our broadband PTT which operates over any broadband network.

The evolution of PTT has created a world of multiple technologies, and technologies that can interoperate. This enables each user to have the right technology for their situation. An example of the collaboration between technologies is Lowland Rescue:

Out in the field the rescue teams communicated by two-way radio and thanks to the interoperability provided by our WAVE solution, were able to keep a rescue-team member (at home) up-to-date with developments via a broadband connection.

Want to know more? Check out our new White Paper ‘The Evolution of PTT’

Mike is EMEA Solutions Marketing Manager at Motorola Solutions  
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotsolsEMEA on Twitter

Occasionally I get to feature some videos and news that have hit the spot with the Public Safety community as well as exemplifying our company philosophy of continuous innovation and quality in design.

Design Award News - TETRA Pager - news is just in won that we have won a 2018 iF Design Award for the TETRA TPG2200 Pager:

The Pager has definitely been hitting the mark as we were also awarded a 2018 Red Dot Award for the Advisor TPG2200. The award jury were impressed with their view on the product ‘Functionality, operational security, ergonomic handling – the two-way pager proves to be optimally tailored to the requirements of emergency staff.'

The recent Critical Communications World showcased some new and updated products and we shot some really great product demos that quickly capture the idea of ‘purpose-built devices’. Here are three snippets that particularly impressed:

In just 53 seconds, Paul Wilson takes you through a hands-on demo of the key features and functionality of the new LEX L11 Handheld LTE device including the dedicated emergency button, large push-to-talk button and extended life batteries:

The second demo is also by Paul Wilson. Here he takes you through the latest version of the Si500 Body-Worn Video Camera, including how it can work with TETRA and ASTRO radios:

Finally, here is a comprehensive run-through of the Avigilon Video Surveillance and Analytics demo at CCW. Steve Batt takes us through a live demo of high-resolution video surveillance and shows us how comprehensive video analytics can be used to ensure users see the detail they need and how advanced analytics such as 'appearance search' can search video footage for suspects and more:

I hope you enjoy watching those snippets.

You can watch all this year’s CCW videos on our dedicated Critical Communications World 2018 playlist

Paul Jeffs - Editor - Think Public Safety

Public Safety Editorial Lead for Europe, Middle-East and Africa at Motorola Solutions.

Follow me on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #MSIquality